Cichorium is the Greco Latin name or from the Arabic for Chicory.Intybus is Latin for Endive, the old name for Chicory.

Other Names:

Belgium EndiveGroundsel BushSuccoryWitloof comes from it name as a European vegetable

Summary:

A blue flowered perennial herb that exudes a milky sap when damaged and has a basal rosette of long, leaves with backward pointing lobes. It has tall, somewhat bare, rigid and grooved branching stems that carry daisy like flowers in spring.

Oblong to cup shaped, single, 10-14 mm long x 4-10 mm diameter or small groups of 2-3 flowers in leaf axils along the stem. Flowers on the ends of swollen, hollow stems(peduncles) arising from leaf axils or stalkless in the axils of these peduncles or stalkless and in the leaf axils along the branches. 8 inner bracts that are broadly egg shaped, hairy edged with pale hard bases and 2-3 times longer than the 5 much shorter outer bracts that are erect, green and hairy.

Exude milky sap when damaged.Leaves alternate or radicalFlowers blue, all bisexual, all ligulate.Ligules (petals) mostly shortly 5 toothed at the summit.Style with plano convex branches attenuated toward the summit, bearing stigmatic papillae on the whole of the inner side and well developed collecting hairs on the outside down to below the place where the branches fork.Anthers acute or acuminate at the baseReceptacle bristly towards the centrePappus a crown of short scales.Adapted from John Black, Nancy Burbidge and Nick Lander

Biology:

Life cycle:

Perennial. Seeds germinate from autumn to spring. Grows mainly in spring and early summer and starts flowering in late spring.

Physiology:

Reproduction:

By seed.

Flowering times:

November to May in SA.Summer to Autumn in Western NSW.November to April in Perth.November to May in WA.December to March in New Zealand.

Small areas my be controlled with a mixture of 100 mL Lontrel® plus 200 mL Tordon® 75-D® in 100 L of water and sprayed until just wet. This mix will also kill legumes and other broadleaf plants but has little effect on grasses.

Herbicide resistance:

None reported.

Biological Control:

Related plants:

Endive (Cichorium endivia) is used as a salad vegetable.

Plants of similar appearance:

Sea Lavenders (Limonium species) are superficially similar but have clusters of purple, papery flowers with a white or yellow centre.Skeleton Weed (Chondrilla juncea) has yellow flowers.